"Reading Copra we see these elements plainly inspired by superhero comics of the past, minus the explanation of context that would be offered up by dozens of books published every month for decades on end. Here it is always the first time, although there are no introductions to set out ideas of any limiting parameters. Everything is in media res, as if Fiffe is trying to capture the feeling of reading a random comic-book issue and not understanding who all the characters are meant to be- but somehow he forgets that those old comics, when well-made, were constructed so that a first-time audience could find them, and be provided with introductions to characters and recognizable stakes. In other words, they told an actual story, and didn’t just demonstrate the artist’s approach to color and page design.
I acknowledge that to a practitioner of the form, the artist’s approach to the labor of their job might be the most interesting element. This is a twenty-dollar collection of a comic explicitly designed for people whose ideal comics reading experience is paying fifty cents apiece for old Norm Breyfogle comics, and who feel as if the stories and scripting mostly just get in the way. Those readers are out there, and I hope they find Copra, if they have not already. But other readers, seeking a comic they can actually read, may hearken back to the early ’90s, and wonder, “How is this particularly different from the first wave of Image Comics?” The only real answer is that Fiffe is comparatively disinterested in splash pages."
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